Fundraisers make pitch for Trump at hedge fund conference

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Lawrence Delevingne LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Top fundraisers for Donald Trump on Wednesday were making pitches to prominent hedge fund investors to line up behind the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as he seeks to raise $1 billion for the general election campaign. The New York billionaire businessman was a topic of discussion as some 2,000 hedge fund managers, investors, lawyers and journalists gathered in Las Vegas for SALT, the hedge fund industry’s most prominent annual meeting. When David Rubenstein, the co-founder of private equity powerhouse Carlyle Group, kicked off the three-day conference by asking the audience which candidate they thought would move into the White House in January after November’s election, the vast majority did not express an opinion.